What your local librarian is reading…

Caution: Spoilers ahead! If you haven’t read The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting, proceed at your own risk. Desires of the Dead picks up right where The Body Finder left off, and I don’t want to ruin things for you. You’ve been warned!

If you’re still reading after the spoiler alert above, you’ve probably figured out that Desires of the Dead is the sequel to Kimberly Derting’s The Body Finder. (At least, I hope you’ve figured that out.) In this second installment, we continue to follow Violet as she deals with her mysterious “gift.” To refresh your memory, she is led to bodies of those who have been murdered. An echo is attached to each body–a sound, a smell, a taste–and Violet follows that echo until she locates the body. An imprint of each echo is also attached to the killer, a fact Violet knows all too well after her abilities helped to identify and capture a serial killer.

In Desires of the Dead, Violet is still dealing with the aftereffects of coming face to face with the serial killer that was plaguing her town. She knows her “gift” led her to him–and put people she loves in danger–so she’s hesitant to share her secrets with anyone, including those closest to her. She’s also dealing with her changing relationship with Jay, her best-friend-turned-boyfriend. They truly love each other, but Violet is still unsure about trusting Jay with everything that is happening in her life.

And there is a lot happening. After locating the body of a missing boy, certain people begin to question just know Violet knew to find the body in an airtight, windowless, dark storage container. These people, somehow connected with the FBI, know that Violet has some special abilities, and they want her to use them. Violet is not convinced that she won’t become some creepy lab experiment, but she also wonders if she could really use her gift to help people.

On top of that, it seems that Violet has really ticked someone off. After finding a dead cat next to her car, receiving a threatening poem, and enduring many calls from an unknown source, Violet knows that someone is stalking her, but she’s not sure why. She thinks she knows who is threatening her, but, after Jay refuses to believe her suspicions, she begins to question herself, her abilities, her relationship, and her own mind.

Violet eventually begins to find some measure of peace, but it is soon shattered by her “gift” once again. A body is calling to Violet, but whose is it? And what is its connection to the threats being made against Violet? Who can she turn to for help? Will anyone even believe her? Find out when you read Desires of the Dead by Kimberly Derting.

I really enjoyed this book, but I must admit that I liked The Body Finder more. I think Desires of the Dead is a fairly typical second book in a series. We kind of get to know the main characters more, there are some new players introduced, and some plot points drive the story along. I look forward to seeing what happens in the third book in this series. According to Goodreads, there will be at least two more books in this series. I hope these books will be as good as or better than the first two installments.